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John Coulter
310 351 6570 - 310 446 8016
john.coulter4@verizon.net
www.johncoulterart.com
When he was 8 years old, John Coulter took drawing lessons at the Chicago Art Institute. He attended the University of Illinois and UCLA.
In 1988, during visits to the Musée Picasso, the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, John became inspired by Pablo Picasso’s work. He began sketching and painting in his spare time, refining a totemistic style based in part on Picasso’s linear expressions and primitive derivatives.
Since settling in Los Angeles, he has developed a successful career as a graphic designer, creating CD packaging, logos and tour books for some of the world’s most successful recording artists. His clients have included Madonna, Shakira, Josh Groban, Janet and Michael Jackson, Enrique Iglesias, Steve Winwood, Elton John, Wynonna, Paula Abdul, Sheena Easton, Mariah Carey and Barbara Streisand.
John enjoys sketching tribal objects, especially masks, and often juxtaposes primitive icons with contemporary photography, blended via the acrylic transfer process on canvas. Art historians call this synthesis of tribal and modern expressions “Modernist Primitivism.” It is evident in John’s work, which he calls The New Mythology.
John’s first show (2008) at the Deborah Page Gallery in Santa Monica was one of the most successful emerging artist presentations the gallery experienced.
John‘s clients often visit his studio, located in Westwood, CA. He receives commissions to create customized pieces for specific spaces in offices and residences. He enjoys collaborating with interior decorators to make memorable works of art for homes and workplaces.
Excerpts from ‘Modern Primitivism –the affinity between tribal (primitive) art and modern art as demonstrated by the work of Picasso’:
“The persuasive influence of tribal arts – particularly African – on modern painters and sculptors has been recognized for many years. The blending of these totemic and contemporary styles is referred to as Modern Primitivism or Modernist Primitivism – a movement linking the potential of human creativity in modern and primitive societies.”
“Picasso’s attraction to and revulsion of the female form is well-known. He admitted to treating women as either “goddesses or doormats.” In Demoiselles, both extremes are evident. The artist also characterized Demoiselles as his “first exorcism picture.” Picasso told Malraux: “For me tribal masks were not just sculptures. They were magical objects... intercessors...against everything – against unknown, threatening spirits.”
Picasso regarded these masks and ”fetishes” in a compelling, new light that is relevant to what he was trying to get at in Demoiselles. He began to think in terms of “exorcism,” “intercession,” and “magic.” What could be more logical than that this revelation should have taken place in an ethnological museum, where the isolated masks and statuettes of the artists’ studios gave way to mannequin figures in full ceremonial regalia surrounded by artifacts evoking their cultures and accompanied by labels that declare their ritual function?”
Picasso’s complex psychology and the aesthetic insights he established in his prolific body of work have inspired many artists to explore the Primitive Modernist style.”
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* None of the artworks may be copied or reproduced without the written permission of the Artist